PACE Theatrical Group is denying rumors that it has optioned the Mel Brooks film The Producers for a stage adaptation.
Spokesperson Angie Finn said "the rumors are just that."
The 1968 film is a devastating parody of Broadway, reportedly based on Brooks' frustrations in writing the libretto of the musical All American.
Broke Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel in the film) hatches a scheme with mousy accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) to sell 25,000 percent of a Broadway musical -- then keep the extra money. The only catch is that the show MUST be a guaranteed flop, so no one will ask where the money went.
Their candidate is Springtime for Hitler, billed as "a gay romp with Adolph and Eva at Berchtesgaden" with a hippie as Hitler, an unrepentant Nazi as composer/librettist and several other wildly inappropriate choices for key production staffers.The movie includes a memorably tasteless production number of the title song, complete with a chorus of jackbooted chorus boys and chorines wearing pretzels and little else. Lyrics, by Brooks, include "Springtime for Hitler and Germany/ Winter for Poland and France/ We're marching to a faster pace./ Look out, here comes the master race . . . / Now Germans, go into your dance!"
Naturally, Springtime for Hitler is a huge hit.
Hard-core theatre fans have been known to recite whole scenes' worth of the film's dialog from memory.
PACE is producer of Jekyll & Hyde and Damn Yankees on tour.